Adapting to changes, Department of Water Resources strikes success

On July 7, the Department of Water Resources (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) held a conference to review the first 6 months of 2023 and implement the work plan for the last 6 months of 2023, chaired by Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep. The conference welcomed the attendance of Director of the Department of Water Resources Nguyen Tung Phong, Deputy Director Luong Van Anh, Deputy Director Nguyen Hong Khanh and representatives from relevant departments and agencies.

Despite facing many difficulties due to changes in structure and apparatus, irrigation work met with adverse developments in climate and weather, under the directives of the Government, Prime Minister and leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Department of Water Resources has coordinated with other agencies to consolidate and reorganize the apparatus, taking the initiative in directing and administration to well-complete the assigned tasks in the first 6 months of 2023.

Adapt to change, be proactive at work, get good results

Right from the beginning of 2023, the Department of Water Resources has actively coordinated with functional units of the MARD to consolidate the entire organizational apparatus. The arrangement of cadres and civil servants is carried out methodically, ensuring that the administrative apparatus operates effectively and promptly to meet the requirements of work, in accordance with the tasks and capacity of each unit.

Reporting to the conference, Deputy Director Luong Van Anh said that the Department of Water Resources has issued a detailed plan for the development of legal regulations in 2023 (including 1 Decree and 2 Circulars), ensuring the progress according to the schedule as per the Ministry’s assignment. In particular, the Decree on rural clean water supply has the dossier completed and submitted to the Government for promulgation after being appraised by the Ministry of Justice.

Summarizing reports of localities on the assessment of the implementation of Decree 77/2018/ND-CP dated May 16, 2018, the Department of Water Resources has given advice to the Ministry, announced the promulgation of 24 standards, 12 technical advances in water-saving irrigation procedures, 9 technical manuals.

Implementing the two criteria of clean water and in-field irrigation in the National Target Program on New Rural Construction, up to the present date the whole country has had 7,810/8,212 communes that have met irrigation criteria, reaching 95.1%.

Regarding the shortage of water in large reservoirs and the impact of the El Nino phenomenon in the second half of 2023, the Department of Water Resources has directed the implementation of solutions to prevent and control drought, water shortage, and saltwater intrusion, achieving positive results.

In the 2023 winter-spring crop, water sources are basically sufficient for production. Hydroelectric water reservoirs only discharge 2 times to collect water for planting (one less than in previous years). The total discharge amount of hydropower reservoirs is 3.52 billion m3, approximately 1.14 billion m3 lower than the total expected volume, equivalent to a decrease of 24%.

In the work of administrative reform, digital transformation and communication, the Department of Water Resources has issued and organized the implementation of the 2023 Administrative Reform Plan, also building an industry database on the websites thuyloivietnam.vn and hochuavietnam.vn, smartphone applications which provide information to support water supply in the winter-spring crop, and online maps to provide information on saltwater intrusion.

Despite the achieved results, there are still some limitations in the observance of the law on irrigation, and the local authorities have not been drastic in handling violations of the law. The problem of pollution and deterioration of water quality in irrigation systems is becoming more and more intense. The protection of water quality in irrigation works is facing many challenges from the impact of the development process specifically the trend of changing production models, the process of urbanization, industrialization and infrastructure development.

Focus on implementing important tasks in the last 6 months

Chairing the conference, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Hoang Hiep acknowledged and highly appreciated the efforts as well as the results achieved by the Department of Water Resources in the past period. Not only successfully completed the tasks in the first 6 months of the year, but the Department also well performed unexpected tasks from the Ministry.

Receiving the assessment of the Deputy Minister, Director of Department of Water Resources Nguyen Tung Phong added, "In addition to stabilizing the organization, developing legal documents, implementing tasks as the Deputy Minister commented, the Department of Water Resources Loi has actively advised and handled the unexpected task very well. The development of legal documents was carried out by the collective of officers and experts of the Department on time with proactiveness and determination”.

In preparation for the work tasks in the last 6 months of the year, Director Nguyen Tung Phong said that Department of Water Resources would drastically develop a plan to implement the Deputy Minister's directives.

Accordingly, the Department will focus on completing the development of legal documents, developing a detailed plan for the implementation of the Project "Water security and safety of dams and reservoirs in the 2021 - 2025 period, vision to 2045", closely monitoring developments in weather, water sources, hydrometeorology, and coordinating with units under the MARD in directing, administering and implementing solutions to prevent and control drought, water shortage, saltwater intrusion in order not to lack water for daily life and production.

At the conference, the Department of Water Resources also made a number of specific recommendations: the Government and the Prime Minister pay attention to directing ministries and branches to coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in directing the prevention of drought, water shortage, saltwater intrusion, ensuring the safety of dams and irrigation reservoirs considering the influence of El Nino; support localities with funding for prevention of drought, water shortage and saltwater intrusion in the winter-spring crop 2023 - 2024; integrate the digital data base of the irrigation sector into the information system and database of the agriculture and rural development sector.

Addressing the directive, Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep said, "In the first 6 months of the year, we have basically completed the set tasks, and at the same time performed very well the arising tasks. National Irrigation and Disaster Prevention Planning is the first planning we do. We have prepared very carefully, and it is one of the highly appreciated plans. It has both a vision for 2030 - 2050 and practicality for implementation in each period, basically solving the pressing problems of irrigation and natural disaster prevention in the locality”.

To prepare for irrigation work in the last 6 months of the year, Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep asked the Department of Water Resources to "clearly identify the situation; irrigation must always be one step ahead, and production services must even take one step further, and in order to go ahead, forecasting and judgment must be very accurate".

Regarding the tasks specified by the Deputy Minister, firstly, there are currently two trends of assessment about El Nino: it will be similar in 2015 or will end by June 2024. The Deputy Minister suggested that the Department of Water Resources firmly grasp the forecasts and refer to other forecast sources to improve the specialized forecasts for long-term service.

Secondly, in production directing, processization is required. Processization helps direct production and coordinate support faster and more accurately while reducing the pressure on human resources.

Thirdly, the Department should focus on the planning implementation plan. “The planning implementation plan is even more important than the planning, it is necessary to focus on developing the draft implementation plan. In the plan, activities are listed, but the plan will be more detailed,” said Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep.